USA Floorball Board Meeting

USA Floorball Board Meeting Notes 10/21/18, 9.00 AM PST

Participants; David Nilsson, Adam Troy, Anders Buvarp, Kim Aaltonen, Alyssa Zinsser, Vince Faso, Zack Geiser.

Approve meeting agenda and select note taker.  Agenda approved and David Nilsson selected to lead the meeting and take notes. Quorum requirements were met.

U19 Women (Anders Buvarp)  Report from Anders Buvarp: Found two new girls for the 2020 WFC. One 15-yo in Seattle (via Geoff Dugan, whose son I recruited to MU19) and a 15-yo in , who found us via usafloorball.org web page.

The sister of the Seattle girl is 18-yo, very talented and wants to try-out for the Women's National Team. Unfortunately, 1 year too old for U19. Speaking of the Women's team, there seems to be a of current and former U19 girls that will be playing at the 2019 Women's WFCQ.

We'd like to do some WU19 events during December in Washington, Detroit and Wyoming.

Planning on creating a WU19 sign-up sheet similar to what I did for MU19.

U19 Men (Anders Buvarp)  Report from Kenton Walker: Below is a brief update on the MU19 team. A slide presentation was shared with parents and players at the team meeting last weekend at the GGC.

-U.S. Floorball - MU19 Mission Statement: To promote and grow the U.S. Men’s U19 Floorball program and enable the team to individually and collectively realize their full potential -Developmental team had a successful training camp, team meeting and tournament experience at GGC. -Head Joel and Coach Lars were in attendance -13 boys participated in the training camp and team meeting (11 boys played for the developmental team, 1 for Utah and 1 for Reno) -Fitness testing of prospective roster players will start soon (led by volunteer strength & conditioning coach, Par Kalberg) -14 boys signed up (4 from the U.S., and 10 European-based players) for a camp and developmental team participation in the Storvretacupen touranment - Dec. 26 - 30 (big thanks to Jerker Eriksson, Adam Troy, and Coach Joel for making this possible!) -After the tournament in , the coaches will select 15 field + 2 goalies for the roster -We also hope to select 3 field reserve players for the roster and up to 5 alternate players that may be added to roster as reserves if anyone gets injured or cannot make the trip -We are very excited to be building a sustainable year-round MU19 developmental team that can feed the MU19 WFC roster every other year and graduate prospects for the Men's team. We need to continually grow the funnel of interested national team players. We do not want the program to die after Halifax and then have to bring it back to life again for 2021. -We need to now tackle fundraising / sponsorship. Ryan Connor (Case Connor's father) will be leading these efforts for the team. We would appreciate if Ryan could get an official usfba.org

December 3, 2018 1 (9)

USA Floorball Board Meeting

email address, official letterhead, copies of existing sponorship agreements, etc. to him/us raise funds in a professional/legitimate manner.

Women’s Team (Alyssa Zinsser)  Report from Alyssa Zinsser: We have 15 ladies confirmed on our roster for our upcoming WFCQ.

Additionally, due to personal issues I have taken a step back from my GM duties for the WFCQ. Ann Lövgren and Geri Lindberg of the women’s team staff will resume my duties until perhaps summer. [  Comments/discussions on report  Anti-doping is an issue according to Anders Buvarp.  Vince Faso to reach out to contacts.

Men’s Team (Adam Troy)  Report from Adam Troy: Men Joel Olofsson appointed head coach, Vince Faso continues as assistant coach up to and including the Games. Current discussion underway with Janne Svensson about team manager role. Also considering another assistant and equipment manager but that process is still in the beginning stages.

Working on getting a men/MU19’s team camp set in Detroit during the Women’s WFCQ but need confirmation that there is a possibility of getting training slots during the event.

Going to sign the Men up to the next WFC as soon as I get a receipt for the payment of the fee. Also working on a long term calendar for the mens team’s events

MU19 Helped get the MU19 to sing up for Storvretacupen, will leave the detailed report for the MU19 but as I understood it a number of US based players coming in and I think this could blow their minds.

Golden Gate Cup Helped cover the Golden Gate Cup, posted photos etc and an interview. Some more in the works. Also submitted material to Eurosport Sweden who included it in their weekly (?) show, there were some errors in their edit though but still good to get the word out.M

Tournaments (2018)  See http://www.usafloorball.org/tournaments/

The 2021, Birmingham, AL (Kim Aaltonen)  Report from Kim Aaltonen: A short update on the Birmingham 2021 progress so far: - Initial 3-year plan shared with John Liljelund from IFF on 10/22, good feedback from John Liljelund/IFF. Meeting notes are also available. - Follow-up call with John Liljelund and Kim Aaltonen happened on 11/9, where the following items were discussed: TWG floorball venue, floorball contact person nomination, possibilities for sponsorships, contact at Birmingham Parks & Recreation department. It was agreed that John

December 3, 2018 2 (9)

USA Floorball Board Meeting

Liljelund will send an email to Steve Mistrot where he introduces Kim Aaltonen as the USA Floorball contact. - Email from John Lijlelund to Steve Mistrot sent on 11/12

Next steps is to establish contact with the floorball contact person (still to be nominated) and start a working governance with that person.  Comments/discussions on report  Steve Mistrot will be a direct contact.  We can use promotional material but it needs to come from them. Kim Aaltonen to clarify with Steve Mistrot/John Liljelund.

Web Site/Facebook (Zack Geiser)  Report from Zack Geiser: Most of my recent efforts have been around supporting AZ floorball growth. Detailed report sent in to Anders.

Referees (Vince Faso)  Report from Vince Faso: Sean Edin and Vince Faso approved by the IFF as an international pair. Waiting on IFF for next steps. Thomas Andersson will be reporting to IFF about our progress. Certified Zach Costi as a Level 2 based on written/oral exam taken last week and performance over the weekend.

Regional Updates (Kim Aaltonen and Anders Buvarp)  Report from Kim Aaltonen and Anders Buvarp  See Appendix A for full report.  Comments/discussions on report  Email address for each regional director was approved by the board.

Any Other Business.  USA representative in the IFF GA [email from Veli Halonen]  I just learned that Floorball USA has not registered to the IFF GA, which takes place in in conjunction of the Men’s WFC 2018 on the 8th of December. I was just wondering if there were some person from USA going to Prague and could represent USA or maybe we could think of some person together who could represent USA in the meeting. It would be very important for the IFF that USA would be present, of course partially also because of the upcoming World Games. Maybe the IFF CB member Mr. Ron Spence could represent USA or someone else who pops to your mind.  Calle Karlsson to review agenda and talk to Ron Spence concerning our positions.

 IFF License system 2.0 survey [mail from Veli Halonen]  The IFF General Assembly 2016 has approved the IFF License system 2.0 and the IFF CB has been working with the process after that. The IFF CB decided to carry out a survey among the IFF member associations in order to ease the work of categorizing the IFF Member Associations to the license system and to define the tier category for each IFF member association.

December 3, 2018 3 (9)

USA Floorball Board Meeting

The IFF office has prepared a web based survey with 20 questions and answering the survey won’t take that long time. The deadline to fill the survey is Friday the 23rd of November 2018. The IFF CB members will also be more than happy to discuss with you of the survey if you so prefer and the discussion can take place before or after the IFF General Assembly, which takes place on the 8th of December 2018 in Prague.

The link to the survey is: https://bit.ly/2Ssxw2h

Should you have any questions related to the survey, don’t hesitate to ask from me.  Adam Troy to review and let David Nilsson know our position.

 US Nationals at State Games of America [email from Darryl Gross]  See Appendix B.  Email discussed and David Nilsson to ask Calle Karlsson if any decisions need to be made by the board; or if this is a sub-committee topic under the Tournament Committee.

Schedule next meeting.  Sunday Dec 16, 2018, at 9.00 AM PST  Sunday Jan 20, 2019, at 9.00 AM PST

Close meeting  David Nilsson adjourned the meeting.

December 3, 2018 4 (9)

USA Floorball Board Meeting

Appendix A - Meeting Minutes 11/18/2018 - Regional Directors

South Central (Jukka Kotti)

Alabama: Contacted 17 Parks and Rec organizations. So far only one has responded with “interested”. We will follow up with all current contacts and find more to contact. There are two groups in AL who play floorball at this moment. I know of one AL school who plays floorball. A school just stared in Atlanta, GA. Georgia Tech has had a floorball program for couple years.

Louisiana: Contacted 8 Parks and Rec organizations. A brief discussion with Lafayette Parks and Rec. I will follow up with all of the current contacts and find more to contact.

Mississippi: Contacted 9 Parks and Rec organizations and Universities to push the idea of floorball. The University of Southern MS responded “thank you but we are not interested”.

Oklahoma: Dallas Stars fitness stars program expanded to Oklahoma (3 schools). Follow up is needed with Parks and Rec department in that area during 1H 2019 to establish outside of the school game locations for kids who have been introduced to floorball at school.

Texas: Contacted 47 Parks and Rec organizations. Good discussions with several of them. - We have scheduled three new DFW area locations to start in December and January. (Fort Worth and Richardson, December; Grapevine, January) - Discussions ongoing to add additional three more. - Floorball Clinic with Denton Parks and Rec, Dallas Stars and FloorballPlanet on December 1st. - Started a new after school class. First class was 27 kids. (Activity Leader: Jon Keener) - NTFA (North Texas Floorball Association) league goes on strongly every Monday - TX OPEN tournament scheduled for March 9-10, 2019 (Elzie Odom Rec Center, Arlington / Brian Radichel, Tara Nunez) - 10 years of Flower Mound Community Activity Center pick-up games with adults and kids classes, going strongly. (Activity Leader: Jukka Kotti) - Open house event with Flower Mound January 12 - “At a Park” event with Grapevine Parks and Rec on April 13th. - Austin/ Johanna Owens has contacts to all Austin area Parks and Rec centers. Youth clinic in December. Provided marketing documentation to Johanna. - Houston: In addition to school floorball, Houston does not have a weekly floorball activity at this moment. We have had several email discussions to kickstart Houston floorball. Venue availability seems to be the biggest issues. Hurricane Harvey (2017) may still have some effect. - Waco: (parks and rec) “we love the idea of this game but do not have availability at this moment” – I will revisit Waco situation during 1H 2019. - San Antonio: I am talking to a local contact to get floorball going in this city.

Special Olympics: (Adaptive Committee) - Missouri: Next training session scheduled for November 17th. (Dan Torretta will run this event) - Texas: Floorball clinic with Texas in March 2019. (Jukka Kotti will run this event)

======

December 3, 2018 5 (9)

USA Floorball Board Meeting

South West (Zack Geiser)

Adult pickup at ymca continues weekly with high turnout (~16 plus goalies).

Recently added a Swedish female goalie. We now have 4 goalies available and rarely have to ask for volunteers.

Working on a 4on4 league for 3 teams once a month over 4 months Jan/feb/mar/apr

Introduced to youth at Tempe YMCA for fall break with a 2 hour session. Waiting for feedback.

Scouted a new venue which seems promising (bigger and better). Hoping to use this venue for higher level players and keep YMCA night for all players. Also offered kids program which seemed to be very welcomed.

Reached out to @newmexicofloorball (instagram) to see what the status is.

======Rocky Mountains (Kenton Walker)

-It was very exciting to see Colorado and Utah send teams to the GGC and finish 2nd and 4th, respectively -Utah sent a full roster of 15 to the GGC -The MU19 developmental team at the GGC had 5 boys from Utah and one from Wyoming -Utah Floorball recently attended a Utah Grizzlies (minor league ) game together -Jyri Koivisto (who runs Utah Floorball) held on-court training for 15+ elementary school teachers and then donated 12 sticks + balls to each school -Utah's kid, youth and leagues wrap up for the season in a couple of weeks -Jyri is planning new leagues starting Jan./Feb. and 4x4 all-day tourney later in the spring -Jyri has been contacted by a teenage hockey player who lives up by the Idaho border who wants help in starting floorball in his community, so I will assist Jyri with helping that group get started -Floorball excitement/engagement is at an all time high right now in Utah, so we just need to keep it going/growing. - Richard Hedlind and Anders is working on collaboration with Rampage Icehockey Club for youth floorball clinics.

======Mid-America (Alyssa Zinsser) Nothing to report. ======

Missing reports from South-East, Midwest, Pacific North, Pacific South, Atlantic, North-East

December 3, 2018 6 (9)

USA Floorball Board Meeting

Appendix B - US Nationals at State Games of America (Email from Darryl Gross 10/28/2018)

I have just returned from Richmond and Lynchburg, Virginia and would like to report on the status of State Games of America and the 2019 US Floorball Nationals. I am sending this email to all USA Floorball Board members, Regional Directors, and members of the national Tournaments Committee. If I have left anybody off the list, please forward to them and advise me so they can be included in future communications. Anybody answering this email, please use reply all so everybody stays in the loop. I believe everybody is aware of the effort to include Floorball in the State Games of America tournament. Patrick, Anders and I met with the State Games people in Grand Rapids the day before this year’s Nationals in Tomah to learn about State Games and discuss the opportunity for bringing Floorball into the Olympics-style state games program. State Games is very eager to incorporate our and when we reported on this meeting at Summit II in Tomah, everybody was enthusiastic about the possibilities. State Games of America runs their national tournament games every two years. In 2017, the games were held in Grand Rapids, MI. In 2019, the location is Lynchburg, VA while Ames, IA will host the 2021 event. Because the State Games has an Olympic flavor and is supported by USOC, we felt that partnering with SGA could be very beneficial in growing awareness of Floorball with World Games in 2021 and possible future inclusion in the Olympics in 2028. By joining SGA to host Nationals, we have an entry to the 38 State Games programs to develop additional competitive floorball across the country. Joining with SGA to host our Nationals is pretty much a no-brainer. SGA provides the venue(s), opening ceremonies, medals, registration (as needed), nationwide marketing, and significant exposure. USA Floorball would provide floorball rinks & equipment (goals, balls, etc.), , scoring, and tournament operation. Since we won’t have the financial risk when booking the venue(s), it gives us much greater latitude in structuring registration and deciding on format(s) – especially the last minute juggling of schedules which depends on registrations. We essentially decide on registration requirements and costs by ourselves and then we split the net proceeds with State Games. The only direct costs that State Games incurs because of our tournament is medals and ancillary facility costs like custodian and security. State Games is nonprofit. Our latest thinking is to incorporate the US Floorball Nationals with SGA for the next two cycles (2019 and 2021) with our standard Nationals by a floorball host club or group during the off years. I’ve heard discussion about having Nationals in Birmingham, AL in 2020 as a lead-in to the World Games the following Spring. That sounds like a super idea. As we stand now, we are scheduled to be part of SGA in 2019. Here is a link to the announcement of SGA in Lynchburg http://www.liberty.edu/news/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=208909. Liberty University is the host location. Here is the link to the State Games of America home page http://stategamesofamerica.com/. From here you can see everything about SGA. I’ve attached a PDF list of participating sports – you can see that Floorball is already listed. Katie Brown and I visited Lynchburg on Thursday, 10/25. We met with Pete Lampman (Virginia Amateur Sports President and advisor to Commonwealth Games of Virginia [email protected] ) and Amanda Mangum of Commonwealth Games of America ([email protected]) who is coordinating SGA. Our purpose was to look at available venues and discuss our requirements. Liberty University is the host location but since we are late to the party, there is no venue available at the university for our events. We visited both high

December 3, 2018 7 (9)

USA Floorball Board Meeting schools in Lynchburg – Heritage and E.C. Glass. While both schools have indoor sports venues that are large enough for our needs, the flooring at Heritage is unacceptable – it has both a hardwood court plus soft rubberized sport court which nobody can use effectively (neither or basketball). It’s only good for indoor track and field. Even though the facility is huge, we would have to play on a mixed surface which makes it unusable. E.C. Glass, however, is pretty ideal. It has two basketball courts with hardwood floors and enough floorball area and seating for our needs. The main gym has a pro/collegiate basketball court with plenty of overrun. We should be able to set up a regulation IFF floorball court and open the bleachers on one side for spectators. There would be ample room for team benches, secretariat and warmup area. The school would provide tables, chairs, and use of the basketball scoreboard. Next to the main gym is the aux gym. It also has a college size basketball court but doesn’t have the same runoff area. We could probably set up a minimum IFF court of 18m x 36 m but probably better to set up a smaller rink area of 16m x 32m with bleachers open which would be good for 5v5 kids tournament or 4v4 adult recreation division. The entrance area is pretty ideal – you enter the building through the main athletic entrance and then either going straight ahead into the main gym or turn left into the aux gym. Locker rooms are available. SGA will be running the tournament at E.C. Glass during the games but the inside is all ours. Here’s a link to the school web site https://www.lcsedu.net/schools/ecg/about. I’ve attached a few photos of the gyms. The school is 5 minutes from Liberty University. State Games of America is scheduled for July 31 – August 4, 2019. Opening ceremonies tailgate party are at Liberty University on Friday, Aug 2. Our tournament would be Saturday/Sunday, Aug 3- 4. Here is my thinking about the tournament: 1. We offer 3 divisions: First is our regular elite competition with top players from around the country. Hopefully we have 8-10 teams competing. IFF rules, high level referees (possibly IFF refs), 3-4 game preliminary round on Saturday along with playoffs on Sunday. Opening ceremonies on Friday along with big tailgate party. We could sell tickets for spectators to watch the elite games – part for revenue generation but more importantly to show the value and give people an appreciation for the sport played at a high level. 2. The other two divisions would be Youth and Adult Recreational to be played in the aux gym. This is how we promote the hell out of the sport and devote our efforts to pushing this aspect. 3. We could offer an exhibition game on Saturday evening – perhaps Special Olympics. There is a very active Special Olympics program in Virginia and an exhibition game or games is a wonderful PR event. We have been talking about doing a similar exhibition at the Texas Open this coming Spring. A few words about location. Lynchburg is located in the middle of Virginia, about 2 hours west of Richmond. It is the home of Liberty University. There is regional jet service in to Lynchburg but is also two hours from Richmond and a little less from Greensboro, NC. What is cool about this location is the vacation and tourist possibilities. SGA provides a perfect opportunity for players to combine the Nationals tournament with a family vacation. Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown is about an hour from Richmond. Washington, D.C. is 1-1/2 hrs NE of Richmond. Charlottesville, VA (Thomas Jefferson and Monticello) is halfway between Lynchburg and Richmond. And of course you are near the Shenandoah Valley and at the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Day trips to any of these places are pretty awesome for the entire family. The main difference between this Nationals and previous events – we don’t have an organization at that location to take care of all the details. That means we have to rely on our Tournaments Committee and other volunteers to coordinate everything. Katie Brown of RVA Floorball will be the point person even though she is 2 hours away from Lynchburg. She has been very effective in growing floorball in the Richmond area. She is very motivated though she has not had direct

December 3, 2018 8 (9)

USA Floorball Board Meeting experience in running a National tournament. I have strongly suggested she attend the Texas Open in March to see first hand what is involved. Regardless, it will require a coordinated effort by all of us to create a successful event. Boards and goal nets – shouldn’t be a big problem. There is set of Nexxt boards in Richmond that could be used for the aux gym. We have several sets of regulation boards in Texas and would probably make the trip with a trailer. Liberty University has a very active intramural/rec sports program and there is a lot of money there. We should make a special effort to introduce floorball at Liberty. It wouldn’t surprise me if they purchased a set of boards as part of that program. Here are the next steps: 1. Confirm with SGA that were are participating and ask them to book the E.C. Glass gyms. They are already expecting and planning for our participation but we need to confirm everything. I told Pete Lampman that they would hear from USA Floorball within two weeks. Whatever you guys need to do at the Board level, please discuss and advise. 2. We need to form/appoint a Nationals Committee to coordinate all the details. We have 3 members (I think) of the Tournament Committee – myself, Mark Raup, and Alex Fluegel but we certainly need others. 3. Decide on basic format – divisions and registration overview. We have the option of handling registrations for everything using eSportsDesk through USA Floorball, using the SGA registration system, or a combination. I suggest that we use a combination – our system for the Elite Division and SGA for the youth and adult rec divisions. 4. Start reaching out to the various State Games organizations to see if we can jumpstart floorball activity at the state level which can culminate in the national tournament next summer. This would involve the folks in Grassroots Floorball and the Regional Directors. 5. Once these things are done, we can announce and then begin to follow up with the details at the Committee level. Bottom line – this is a fantastic opportunity for Floorball. I think SGA is a wonderful vehicle to start down the road to World Games.

December 3, 2018 9 (9)